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Clarity

Ben Larson

Serial entrepreneur, investor, and startup adviser. Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Gateway, the premier cannabis startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley. Ben is a Director and Mentor for the Founder Institute, where he formerly managed global operations and helped grow the program into over 100 cities around the world. He’s also active on several boards inside and out of the cannabis industry and travels around the world speaking to audiences of all sizes while advising early stage companies. He’s an active Mentor and Senior Advisor to the non-profit Youth Business USA and a Board Member of Playworks. Ben was recently named to the 40 Under 40 Class of 2018 by the San Francisco Business Times.

Answers

Zirtual is one of our portfolio companies (Founder Institute) and I have had conversations with leaders from both FancyHands and TaskRabbit. Then there's a multitude of private providers on sights such as Upwork, which I've used often. It's a crowded space.

You need to know the competitive landscape inside out, and know where your story stands amid the noise. How will you differentiate? Why will people choose you over the others? Why will you do it better than anyone else?

Zirtual and FancyHands are just two of the quickly growing ones. Of course, there's companies like TaskRabbit that have morphed over the years. Then you have the AI driven projects like ClaraLabs and "Amy" (x.ai). The AI solutions are quite compelling.